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Marbury v. Madison

The 1803 case in which Chief Justice John Marshall and his associates first asserted the right of the Supreme Court to determine the meaning of the U.S. Constitution. The decision established the Court's power of judicial review over acts of Congress, in this case the Judiciary Act of 1789

Mculloch v. Maryland

1819; Established Congressional Authority over the States;1819, state tax on the Second Bank of the US was unconstitutional, and a national bank is implied by the 'necessary and proper' clause of the Constitution. Federal law over state law.

Gibbons v. Ogden

This case involved New York trying to grant a monopoly on waterborne trade between New York and New Jersey. Judge Marshall, of the Supreme Court, sternly reminded the state of New York that the Constitution gives Congress alone the control of interstate commerce. Marshall's decision, in 1824, was a major blow on states' rights.

Plessy v. Ferguson

an 1896 Supreme Court Case in which Chief Justice Melville Fuller declared that state laws that enforced racial segregation (such as the Jim Crow laws) were constitutional if "separate but equal" facilities were provided for both races

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

1954 supreme court ruling reversing the policy of segregation, declaring that seperate can never be equal and a year later ordered the integration of all public schools with all deliberate speed society became less racist

The Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc v. U.S.

1964; Motel refused to except blacks. Court ruled the Civil rights act of 1964 was constitutional and that congress could use its power to regulate commerce within states to do away with racial segregation and discrimination.

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education

Court ruled remedial plans were to be judged by their effectiveness, predominately black schools required close scrutiny bu courts, non-contiguous attendance zones were within the courts remedial powers, and no guidelines could be established concerning busing of students to schools (1971)

Korematsu v. U.S.

One exception to the statement that there were no efforts to round up immigrants at the beginning of America's involvement in WWII was the roundup of 110,000 Japanese into concentration camps on the Pacific coast after Pearl Harbor in 1941. They appealed to the Supreme Court, but the court upheld these concentration camps and the U.S. did not formally apologize until 1988.

Texas v. Johnson

Tinker v. Des Moines School District

1969 - The First Amendment, as applied through the Fourteenth, did not permit a public school to punish a student for wearing a black armband as an anti-war protest, absent any evidence that the rule was necessary to avoid substantial interference with school discipline or the rights of others.

New Jersey v. T.L.O.

School officials can search a student suspected of violating school policy; school administrators have greater latitude in conducting a search than police or similar authorities in order to maintain an environment where learning can take place (1985)

Furman v. Georgia

This 1972 Supreme Court case struck down all state laws allowing the death penalty stating that they allowed for too much discretion on the part of the judge and jury resulting in lack of consistent administration of the penalty.

Gregg v. Georgia

The 1976 Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty, stating that "It is an extreme sanction, suitable to the most extreme of crimes." The court did not, therefore, believe that the death sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

U.S. v. Nixon

The 1974 case in which the supreme court unanimously held that the doctrine of executive privilege was implicit in the constitution but could not be extended to protect document relevant to criminal prosecutions

Scott v. Sanford

Speaking for a widely divided court, Chief Justice Taney ruled that Dred Scott was not a citizen and had no standing in court; Scott's residence in a free state and territory had not made him free since he returned to Missouri; Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in a territory (based on the 5th Amendment right of a person to be secure from seizure of property), thus voiding the Missouri Compromise of 1820.